PRODUCTION PIMP'S PARADISE

Bring your demo reel to Remix Hotel, play it in front of a panel of judges and instantly sell a beat to world-renowned rapper Killer Mike? That's exactly what happened to one producer at Remix Hotel Atlanta on Sept. 21. And that wasn't the only connection made. The event, which ran Sept. 20-22 at the brand-new SAE Institute of Technology and at the neighboring Hard Rock Café's Velvet Underground club, was a hustler's dream. Producers, songwriters, artists, DJs and more networked with panelists including Talib Kweli, Scott Storch, The Runners, DJ Don Cannon, DJ Toomp, Needlz, Nitti, Hank Shocklee, Bangladesh and many more. And panelists/speakers you may not know by name, such as songwriter Jan Smith (Usher, Ciara) and Michael Kohler (audio producer for Adult Swim cartoons) gave some great advice about songwriting, production and the changing music industry. Meanwhile, Remix Hotel kept making dreams come true with the iStandard Producers' Battle on Sept. 20, which introduced a new reigning champion, Wallstreet.

SAE offered more than just a network-athon: tons of tech toys! Ableton, Digidesign, Roland and Yamaha all staged free daily classes in the Microsoft lecture room, as well as dedicated hands-on rooms around the school. Korg brought its latest synths — M3, Radius and R3 — and the groundbreaking Zero8 and Zero4 mixers. Celemony and Sound Toys spread the plug-in processing love, while Moog kept it real, analog style. Finally, DJs delighted in a roomful of Numark gear and Akai MPCs, as well as the Rane/Serato Scratch Live room and Pioneer Pro DJ room. Don't forget the scantily clad ladies and fried chicken in the Beatsource room — hard to miss that one.